Equity transactions on the Nigeria Exchange Group (NGX) accumulated to N723.24 billion from January to April 2023, despite the fears expressed on the Nigerian general elections with many observers predicting that events could spin out of control with the ripple effects felt across the West African sub region. It was also a period of cautious approach to the stock market in view of the hawkish stance of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“The Nigerian bourse extended its positive run (3rd) month of the year. However, the year to-date (YtD) returns dipped 185bps from 8.89% in February 2023 to 7.02% in March 2023.We opine that this is an offshoot of investors taking a cautious position in the market amid volatility and uncertainties, elevated yields in the fixed income market following the 50bps hike in interest rate by the CBN at the last monetary policy meeting, mixed sentiments following the release of 2022FY earnings results,” ARM Securities stated in a note to investors early April.
Transactions on the Nigerian bourse steadily picked up with individuals and institutional investors rejigging their portfolios and positioning themselves for this year’s dividend season which commenced in April.
Corporate announcements since March have validated the proactiveness of those investors as market heavyweights such as Dangote Cement, Nestle, Lafarge, Geregu Power, MTN Nigeria, BUA Cement, among others, have all announced handsome rewards for their shareholders.
According to the analysis of the market data by the Nigerian Observer, of the total executed transactions on the NGX in the first four months of this year, the top ten stockbroking firms traded N455.49 billion worth of trade, representing 62.98 percent of the total equity transactions on the NGX.
Leading the market transactions chat is APT Securities and Funds through which investors traded N105.56 billion worth of trade from January to April 2023, representing an average of N26.39 billion on a monthly basis during the period. APT’s transactions represented 14.6 percent of the entire market transactions on the NGX, market data have revealed.
CardinalStone Securities traded N75.06 billion worth of trade, amounting to 10.38 percent of all the equity transactions within the period. This comes to an average of N18.77 billion worth of equity transactions on a monthly basis.
Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers was third on the list, having traded N68.97 billion worth of equities, representing 9.54 percent of the total market transactions. This amounted to an average of N17.24 billion monthly transactions.
United Capital Securities was ranked fourth as it traded N64.43 billion from January to April 2023. It was followed by EFG Hermes which traded N33. 67 billion worth of transactions during the same period.
Investment One Stockbrokers executed N28.63 billion worth of trade, representing 3.96 percent of the total market transactions.
Other stockbroking firms with the most patronage include Cordros Securities which traded N24.96 billion; Meristem Securities, N20.25 billion; FBN Quest Securities, N17.49 billion, and Chapel Hill Denham, which traded N16.46 billion.
During the corresponding period in 2022, the total executed trade on NGX was N901.31 billion, of which the top ten stockbroking firms accounted for 64.29 percent, implying that a reduction of 19.8 percent in transactions within the first four months of this year could be due to the aforementioned factors.
“As at 31 March 2023, total transactions at the nation’s bourse decreased by 22.60% from N188.91billion (about $409.72million) in February5 2023 to N146.22billion (about $317.09million) in March6 2023. The performance of the current month when compared to the performance in March 2022 (N185.26 billion) revealed that total transactions decreased by 21.07%,” the NGX said in March 2023.
